When life keeps tripping
by highonstargate
Summary: What does Jacob Hood thinks when he is under the influence of PCP? What happens after? Tag to H20


It was long past midnight, when Hood finished his analysis of the water bottle. He had found nothing compromising, so he decided to take a long shower and retire to bed

He went in the bathroom and cranked the shower on. While he was waiting for the water to heat up, Jacob wandered back into the bedroom to fetch clean clothes. He came back into the bathroom and shrugged out of his clothes, letting them drop on the floor. He tested the water and was satisfied that it was hot enough. He stepped under the shower, letting the sweat wash away.

He took a washcloth, put some soap on it and started to wash his body. Jacob let his mind wander away, thinking about the usual case, even for his standards.

_What is making the population crazy?_ Jacob thought to himself. _It's in the water, which gets distributed to every establishments in the county, but why it affects only a couple of people? Why not everyone?_ This question was nagging him since he started to investigate the problem. _My analysis showed it wasn't in the reservoir but-_ he trailed off, feeling strange all of a sudden. He didn't feel exactly dizzy, but felt like as if he wasn't in his body, as if he was looking at himself.

He dropped the wash cloth at the bottom of the tub, staring at the wall, waiting for the sensation to pass. But he felt worse and he was starting to hear voices, whispering harsh accusations at him.

"_You're all alone Jacob and there is nothing that you can do…"_

Jacob stood still, this couldn't be happening to him, but it was and there was nothing he could do.

"_All alone in world…nobody likes you…no one is here for you…"_ The voices were everywhere, surrounding him. He closed his eyes and concentrated, willing the voices away. It didn't work.

He suddenly felt dizzy, and he started to fall. Jacob quickly caught himself against the wall in front of him. Then stood straight again, looking around him, not recognizing his surroundings. _"Why am I here? Why aren't the voices going away?"_ he thought desperately

"_All alone…"_

Jacob quickly got out of the shower, so fast that he stumbled against the counter. He bent down, picking up his shirt and putting it on, not bothering to dry himself. He put on his pajama bottoms and stood back up. He saw shadowy figures hovering around him. So close, that they are occasionally touching him with freezing hands. He though that he recognized one of the figures, but the face was quickly forgotten. He started to push them away but his hands only passed though them. He franticly waved his arms around his head, pushing at nothingness. Jacob's flailing hands struck the ornate mirror on the ground, the glass broke, scattering itself all over the floor. Hood didn't pay attention to the glass, desperate to get out of the claustrophobic room, away from the figures that trapped him there. He tottered unsteadily towards the door, his arms in front of him, pushing the nonexistent ghosts away from him. There was a flare of pain on the soles of his feet as he walked on the broken glass. He didn't acknowledge the pain, aware only of the hallucinations that plagued him.

Jacob entered the bedroom, going toward the workstation he had set up only a couple of hours before. He looked for a weapon, any weapon to fight off the figures that following him. He knocked over a vase near the edge of the desk, onto the floor. _That could help me_, his befuddled mind supplied. He bent down to pick it up, and the door of his hotel room crashed open. He spun around to face the door, grabbing the chair that was near him, and held it in front of him.

"Get away" Jacob cried, his voice colored the terror. The woman, who had entered his room with a gun, raised a hand in a calming gesture. With the other hand, she slowly put away her gun.

He waved the chair around, knocking the ghosts away from him.

_Who is she, and why is she here? Is she helping the ghosts to get rid of me?_ he thought wildly.

"Hood" she said. _Was that his name? _Her voice was tinged with worry. "What's going on?"

He dropped the chair, and held up his left hand as if to interrupt, never looking in the blond woman's eyes.

"If Krauss is correct, then we appear to be living in the worse of all possible universes." He said, closing his eyes as a headache appeared behind his eyes. Jacob continued despite this inconvenience, "But if Dyson is correct, then the universe is receding into the threshold of the unknowable." He shoved the chair away from himself and sank to his knees, unable to hold himself up any longer.

The woman watched him silently, as if she didn't know what to say to him, which was probably true.

The voices didn't stop whispering to him, but they did move away from him.

"_You're all alone in this world…nobody is here for you…everyone is against you…you're all alone… alone… alone…"_

Jacob continued his broken dialog, ignoring them, looking at the scared woman's face. "But if Horton is correct, then all matter is dissolving into nothingness."

"Hood" the woman said softly. He ignored her, and finished the theory he started.

"…Then the universe is dying and we are all…alone." Jacob said the last part haltingly, not really to make a statement, but to point it out. Oh, how lonely he was. His hazel eyes looked in her blue eyes, desperately searching for answers to unanswered questions. The ghosts surrounding him backed off, now afraid of him.

The woman, with her hands over her heart, kneeled in front of him. "Hood" she said. "It's me, Rachel" His glassy eyes stared though her, as he was sifting through his brain for a name he did not know. "You're not alone"

_Alone._ The word made Jacob come back from his thoughts. _Alone…wasn't what the ghosts told him? That he was all alone? Oh, no! How could he forget that she wasn't on his side?_ He moved as if to push her away and bellowed "Stay away!"

The woman jumped backwards, surprised at the sudden movement. His arms were outstretched toward her and with a hoarse voice he said "Don't come any closer" Jacob grasped the edge of the bed and pulled himself up to his knees. He loomed over her, suddenly feeling a bit more powerful.

"_She's with us... She's someone who is helping us... Someone to bring you down... To overpower you..."_

Jacob brought his hands close to his face, pointing to her."They told me about you" She stepped closer. "Don't come near me"

"Listen to me. Right now you're not yourself, Hood." The voices became more and more high pitched warning him how he shouldn't trust her. He brought his hand off, protecting himself. In a harsh whisper filled with terror he said, "Don't come any closer! Stay away. Please"

A quite gasp came from the woman's throat. "Hood..." she whispered brokenly now attempting to hold back her tears.

The ghosts used this moment to come closer and closer, until they crowded around him, touching him with their cold, cold hands.

"Ahhh" Jacob screamed, His hands jerking around his head, slapping away the figures.

"_You are all ours...come and join us...__"_

"_Don't trust her...get away from her...__"_

"_Alone...Alone...you're all alone...__"_

The woman panicked. She reached out to him, trying to catch his arms, to restrain them. "Please Hood! I just want to help you!" she cried. She finally captured his arms, pinning them against his chest. She placed hers warm hands on his face, forcing him to look at her. She stared into his eyes searchingly, like if she could find something, just something, to say that he is still in there, somewhere. He broke the stare, looking everywhere but her face. "I just want to make sure you're ok." Her voice, but Jacob avoided her, eyes looking over her shoulder. The ghosts were finally going away.

"Jacob? Jacob! Look at me!"

Jacob...was that his name. Yes it was. She knew his name! He looked into her eyes, finally recognizing her. Rachel Young, FBI, and bodyguard. He was her assignment. They worked together, solving cases that nobody could solve. "Rachel..." he breathed out.

"I'm right here" she assured him.

He couldn't believe it. He wasn't alone. He had someone, someone that cared for him.

"I'm not alone" he said with a childish voice.

Rachel's eyes filled with tears. "No" she choked out, "No, you're not."

Jacob whispered half to himself, half to Rachel, and tasted every word on his tongue. "I'm not alone anymore." A curtain of darkness closed in front of his eyes and he fell.

***

Rachel caught Jacob as he fell. She held him for a moment, almost hugging him to her chest, with tears in her eyes.

How could the gentle, slightly erratic scientist have so many inner demons? She had read his file just after she was assigned to him, to get a better understanding of him. Rachel knew that he had lost his wife just a couple of years ago, but she didn't know how it affected him. She knew that death of people near them could affect them a lot. But to feel alone all this time, it was just staggering. Now she knew why Jacob had passed through so many handlers. Why he didn't want to get attached to the person in question, just to experience the loss again.

The heavy weight of the scientist made itself known to her straining arms. Rachel gently lowered Jacob onto the ground and put him in the recovery position. He didn't so much as move. Backing away from him, her eyes never leaving his still form, she went to the desk where the telephone was and called the front desk, requesting a doctor. She was told that the doctor would arrive momentarily. She hunged up and moved towards Jacob, sitting near his head.

"Oh, Jacob" She said to the unconscious man, "Why do you always get in these types of situations?"

Jacob didn't answer. She sighed and took his hand, gently stroking it with her thumb. Rachel stayed like that, until she heard a knock at the door. Then she let go his hand and took her gun from the waistband of her sweats and held it in front of her. She cautiously went to the door, and looked in the peephole. The young agent saw a tall man with a medical bag in his hands. She unlocked and open the door, always holding the gun in one hand.

"I'm here because you requested me?" The man said not surprised by the gun. Rachel quickly tucked it back in the waist band of her sweats and stood back, fully opening the door.

He saw Jacob and hurried to his side. The doctor did his job quickly and efficiently. He took Jacobs pulse and listened to his heart. Satisfied that he was only unconscious and in no danger, the doctor moved to Jacob's bloodied feet, taking every shard of glass of them.

Rachel moved near Jacob taking his hand again, providing a physical contact. As the doctor removed a particularity large piece, Jacob moaned and twitched, his face twisting in a grimace. Rachel hushed him and smoothed a hand though the brown curly hair. He settled down, his head turning towards the touch.

Antibiotic and gauze were applied to Jacob's feet and the doctor was finished.

He put everything back in his medical bag and turned over to Rachel, who was near Hood, his hand in hers once again.

"He is just unconscious, and he should recover in a couple of hours. Let him sleep all he wants, with all the exertion, he needs it." The doctor assured her. "I will need your help to move him onto the bed"

Together they heaved Jacob onto the bed and under the covers. Jacob moaned a bit, but quickly fell silent again. Without a word, the doctor nodded at Rachel and let himself out of the room. Rachel went to the door and locked it. As she passed the bathroom, and saw the mess Jacob made. She turned off the shower and did her best to pick up all the pieces of glass. After she was done, she went back into the bedroom and settled herself on the chair closest to the bed.

Rachel thought of the strange relationship that she and Jacob had. At first it was nothing, only an assignment that was supposed to last two months. Those first few weeks her thoughts had been about hating the bureau and how could she destroy the evidence if she killed Dr. Jacob Hood? He was an ass, going out of his room with telling her first, doing whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. She was ready to go home and cry mommy, when suddenly Hood started to listen to her, interacting with her. It was a relief, but at the end of her assignment, her boss called saying that she could do whatever she wanted. Rachel hesitated; _she could do whatever she wanted! _,but finally said no, she would keep the assignment. Just after she hung up the phone, she was convinced that she had made a mistake. Who in their right mind would want to be a protection detail to Jacob Hood? Evidently, her. So all through the next case, she berated herself, only realizing at the end that she had grown attached to the man.

So they kept solving cases, his intellect with her fire power, or sometimes, the other way around. After six more months and a close call, she finally realized that the connection between them was deeper than the bodyguard/genius thing. She had feelings for him and she knew that he had feelings for her. Jacob would occasionally sneak glances to her when he thought that she wasn't looking at him. The emotions ranged from impressed to some suppressed love.

He was shy when it came to expressing emotions to her, as if he was betraying his wife by loving someone else, but Rachel knew that he was moving on. He would never find any woman exactly like her, and she knew that. But for now, Rachel would let him explore the emotions he didn't experienced for years. She would wait forever if she had to.

Rachel smiled. _One day, _she thought

***

Jacob woke up warm and comfortable. He felt content for the first time in years. He moved slightly under the covers, and discovered that something was trapping his hand. Surprised, he took out his head from under the covers and looked over to where his hand was. He saw Rachel sleeping on a chair with her head pillowed on one of her arms on the bed. Her free hand was grasping his. He vaguely remembered what had happen, but he was too warm and sleepy to explore it in depth. The only thought in his mind, was that Rachel was holding his hand. It was a childish thought, and Jacob quickly dismissed it away. He squeezed his hand and was rewarded with one back. All was well, Rachel was. Exhaustion broke over him like a wave and carried him back to the land of the sleep.

End

A/N: It's a tag to the episode H2O from the show Eleventh Hour.  
God that took a long time to post! I actually wrote the story less than a week after the episode, and I sent it to some betas. Then I just forgot about it. Anyways, you don't want to hear about my life, so Enjoy!:D  
Thank you to skara_brae shayen_kraft (over at LJ) and to BlackRaven for the awesome Beta duty. It made my story so much better.


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